New colonel to take command at Letterkenny Depot

The ceremony will be at 9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 10, at the depot recreation area. Maj. Gen. James R. Myles, commanding general of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, will officiate at the ceremony.

Shapiro, 43, most recently the operations officer for the 3rd Corps Support Command in Wiesbaden, Germany, and Balad, Iraq, will command Franklin County's largest job site, with 3,029 federal and contract employees and military personnel, according to depot figures.

Swenson, 48, who took command at Letterkenny in August 2005, will have his retirement ceremony that day, as well. He is taking a job in private industry in York, Pa., according to a depot news release.

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Shapiro has a bachelor's degree in political science from George Washington University and a master's degree in logistics management from the Florida Institute of Technology. He was recently a student at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.

Shapiro's other overseas assignments during his career have included Panama and another assignment in Germany, as well as battalion commands in Luxembourg and Kuwait. His campaigns include Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield, Operation Joint Endeavor, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the depot.

Letterkenny took its first shipment of munitions in 1942, according to the depot history. It comprises approximately 17,500 acres.

Letterkenny is the U.S. Army's first two-time winner of the Shingo Prize for manufacturing excellence: First for its Patriot missile program in 2005 and for its Humvee program in 2006. The depot received the Superior Unit Award in 2006 and the 2006 Secretary of the Army Award for Environmental Quality.

Other recent awards include the Defense Logistics Agency's Customer of the Year award and the Lockheed Martin Logistics Facility for Excellence and Contractor-Military Collaboration of the Year Award.